Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

With the week nearly up, it looks like we might get our two wishes from last week – for the ABs to win and for Rena's oil to go away.

The rugby is old news, at least, for most of us. Some need to move on.

Today is the RR-designated day for all silly car flags to be removed.
It was tolerable during the cup. As of today, it is not.

So those of you clinging to the last fading shreds of your unfailing demonstrations of loyalty to Richie and the lads, now is the time to call it a day.

An Italian flag was seen flying from a car in Welcome Bay on Tuesday. That is mighty patriotic, if not sadly desperate. Considering the Italians were sent home weeks ago, that horse has long since bolted.

Ten points for sarcasm however to the guy flying the All Whites flag. That takes a peculiar sense of dry wit to fly a soccer flag throughout a rugby event.

Dunnie bleating

There's been a lot of bleating from some corners of NZ because they didn't get an All Black victory parade. Well, diddums. They should be thankful they got a match! Tauranga of course missed out on both, despite being the fourth largest city in NZ and with a greater population that the loudest bleater, Dunedin.

Get over it Dunners. At least you had some rugby matches locally to boost your economy and entertain the locals.

You'd think the least the rugby union cronies could do for Tauranga, after denying us a match, would be a measly street parade.

After all, if we're good enough for Boobs on Bikes, you'd think we'd be good enough for Blacks on Utes.

But no. All we get is Psa, Rena and a big screen, too late, in a liquor ban area.

Rust bucket
As for Rena, the brave salvors have battled on through horrendous conditions to keep sucking the gunk out of the sad old rust bucket. We can only hope the weather and swell hold long enough for these guys to get the worst of the fuel pumped off before it is unleashed again on our pristine shores.

The people of the Bay are incredibly grateful to those who have risked life and limb to deal with this mess. With the bulk of the remaining fuel oil sucked away, it will minimise what could have been a huge disaster for our coast and way of life.

I guess the fate of the ship's hulk is of less significance to most of us, compared to the devastation caused by the fuel within, which thankfully, due to the commitment of a few hardy souls, is being minimised.

Still little thanks to the apparent lack of preparedness for such an event by Maritime NZ.

The spillage so far has been bad enough, let's hope the worst is over.

There's likely to be plenty of clean ups ahead for a long time to come and an excellent way for young and old to contribute to the recovery of our environment and take pride in our sense of community.

Urban terrorists

That is in stark contrast to the boofheads who will be terrorising the community, wildlife and environment again during the coming weeks with the pointless, dangerous and irrelevant Guy Fawkes vandalism.

Fireworks are tolerable in a controlled, professional and quality display. Fine on a designated night, once a year. (New Year's eve would make more sense, if you must). And probably, it had a place when there wasn't much else to do – before the advent of modern entertainment.

We bang on about sustainability, reducing carbon emissions and caring for flora and fauna – then for a night or two or ten a year, it all goes up in smoke in a beserk and senseless ritual that is so far misconstrued from the original cause, that we might as well be pinning a tail on a donkey to celebrate space travel.

Do we really need to celebrate an event that glorifies treason against parliament? Not that any of the gits, roaming the streets setting fire to letterboxes and scaring cats up trees, give a toss. It's an excuse for mayhem, just as Labour weekend and Anzac day are lost causes for many, just a day off school or work. If they work. And there's another injustice; that anyone on the dole can justify spending on fireworks. Don't get me started.

Ban fireworks

Fireworks have no place in the hands of juvenile idiots wandering the streets causing trouble and danger; not just one night a year, but for many. Some of these brainless pyromaniacs carry on all year round.
Some loose units in our neighbourhood haven't stopped launching skyrockets since last year.

Time for public sale of fireworks to be banned and the lighting of any non permitted fires outlawed, all year round.

Halloween is not much better – just a pointless Yank Crank irritation that has no place in NZ culture. Actually, Halloween is probably a more acceptable alternative to fireworks, at least it doesn't come with the inherent fire risk, just the one time of the year we ignore the message to children that it's okay to talk to people you don't know and take sweeties from strangers.

We'd be better off with Boobs on Bikes – at least it's good, clean natural fun.

Better still, you fire fanatics, go do something worthwhile. With Rena, there are plenty of better options.

Get off the street and instead, get along the beach to help protect our heritage.

Parting shot

It's great to see some classic old rockers still staggering around the stage, with the pending visit of Creedence Clearwater ‘Revisited.' We can expect to see George Thorogood and the Defibrillators Resuscitated, the Doobie Brothers Re-rolled, Keith Richards Marinated; and today's show at TECT Arena titled Meatloaf Reconstituted and Regurgitated.